The Indianapolis crime rate sits well above both the national and Indiana state averages, but the city is four years into a sustained decline. Homicides are down roughly 45% from their 2021 peak, with IMPD recording 152 murders in 2025 after about 209 in 2024 and 219 in 2023. Non-fatal shootings and robberies have fallen alongside them. Property crime is more mixed: most categories are down, but auto theft surged about 38% in Marion County during 2024.
Violent Crime Is Down Four Years Running
The direction matters as much as the level. Homicides peaked in 2021 and have fallen every year since. The 2024 total of roughly 209 was down from 219 in 2023, and 2025 brought another sharp drop to 152, a decrease of about 20% year over year.
Other violent categories moved the same way. Aggravated assaults dropped about 34% in 2024 compared with the prior year. Robberies fell roughly 19% in 2024 and another 18.5% in 2025, putting them more than 42% below where they stood five years earlier. Non-fatal shootings declined about 21% in 2025 and are down 43% over the five-year window.
These aren’t small fluctuations off a single bad year. Indianapolis is now recording violent crime at levels not seen since before the nationwide pandemic-era surge. The caveat: the decline started from a historically elevated baseline, and even after four straight years of improvement, Indianapolis still records more homicides per capita than the typical large American city.
Property Crime: Mostly Down, Auto Theft Up
Most property categories declined in 2024. Burglaries and arsons trended downward, matching national patterns. Larceny, which includes shoplifting, ticked up about 2%.
The outlier is auto theft, which jumped roughly 38% in Marion County during 2024. That increase tracks a trend that hit cities across the country starting around 2022, driven in part by vulnerabilities in certain vehicle models that made theft easier. If you live in or are moving to Indianapolis, this is the category most worth planning around. Steering wheel locks and never leaving a running car unattended make a measurable difference.
How Indianapolis Compares to the Nation and Indiana
The FBI’s 2024 figures put the U.S. violent crime rate at 359.1 per 100,000 residents and the property crime rate at 1,760.1 per 100,000.1Federal Bureau of Investigation. UCR Summary of Reported Crimes in the Nation 2024 Indianapolis runs roughly two to three times the national violent crime rate depending on the year and data source.
Indiana as a whole sits below the city. Statewide 2024 data shows a violent crime rate of about 313 per 100,000 and a property crime rate of about 1,379 per 100,000. Indianapolis residents face violent crime at roughly three times the statewide rate. The property crime gap is narrower but still real. Large cities that anchor their state’s economy commonly show this pattern, and Indianapolis sits at the more extreme end of it.
Among peer cities, Indianapolis has historically ranked higher for violent crime than Columbus, Ohio, or Jacksonville, Florida, though the recent decline is closing those gaps. Memphis, Detroit, and St. Louis consistently rank higher.
One limitation to keep in mind across all of these numbers: crime statistics only capture reported crimes. A significant share of property crime and sexual assault goes unreported, so the published figures are a floor rather than a ceiling.
Where to Check Current Numbers Yourself
IMPD publishes annual reports going back to 2017, covering crime totals, clearance rates, and departmental activity.2indy.gov. Police Department Annual Reports and Statistics For something more current, the IMPD Transparency Hub lets you search individual incidents by location, time period, and offense type, and view daily-updated dashboards.3IMPD Transparency Hub. Crime
For national context and apples-to-apples comparisons, the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer provides searchable data for individual agencies, including IMPD.4FBI Crime Data Explorer. Crime Data Explorer The Indiana State Police maintains the state’s NIBRS program, which centralizes data from all 92 Indiana counties.5Indiana State Police. National Incident-Based Reporting System
If You’ve Been a Victim
IMPD’s Victim Assistance Unit is a 24-hour crisis response team that provides on-scene intervention, emotional support, referrals to shelters and counseling, and help navigating the criminal justice system. Services are free, and the unit responds to homicides, robberies, domestic violence, sexual offenses, child abuse cases, and other violent crimes.6indy.gov. Crime Victim Assistance
Indiana also runs a Violent Crime Victim Compensation Fund through the Criminal Justice Institute. Eligible victims can receive up to $15,000 for out-of-pocket expenses like medical bills, with an additional $5,000 available for funeral and burial costs. Mental health counseling is covered up to $3,000. The program is a payer of last resort, covering expenses not reimbursed by insurance or other sources.7Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. Victim Compensation Division
To qualify, the crime must have occurred in Indiana within the past two years, resulted in bodily injury or death, and been reported to police within 72 hours. Victims must have at least $100 in unreimbursed expenses. Sexual assault victims who undergo a forensic exam are exempt from both the police reporting requirement and the cooperation requirement. People injured while committing a crime, or incarcerated at the time of the assault, are not eligible.7Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. Victim Compensation Division